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Decisions

Budgeting is crucial to efficient and effective financial management. When we don’t budget, we end up either squandering money or missing out on paying for important and/or time sensitive transactions.

Note that the lack of budgeting is the very reason why the poor remain poor–because they don’t take time to think about what they want and research on how much it will cost.

The question is, how will you know what to spend your money on if you don’t budget? Remember that there is more to living than paying bills. Therefore, take control of your finances and establish budgeting as a mandatory act.

Below are 7 budgeting mistakes to avoid.

Mistake 1:

When you don’t stick to your savings plan, or when you don’t have a savings plan. In order to achieve financial freedom putting away money as savings to either invest or fall back on in hard times, should be part of the game plan. If you don’t budget for your savings, you are basically rendering yourself vulnerable for financial disaster.

Mistake 2:

When you don’t update your budget plan:

It’s important to update your spending plan so that you are aware of what’s going on periodically. Get a note book, or download an app on your phone (www.everyDollar.com is a good one)) and use these tools to periodically update your budget.

Mistake 3:

When you underestimate or overestimate how much you spend: To avoid this mistake evaluate your previous month’s expenses to use as reference for your spending patterns.

Mistake 4:

When you don’t have a budget: When you don’t have a budget how will you know much to save or what to spend on?

Mistake 5:

When you don’t communicate with your spouse or people in your household about your budget standards: This applies if you have a family. You need to let your spouse know about your budgeting plans so that they spend within its limits.

Mistake 6:

When you only budget once in a while: You have to be consistent with your budget plans. It is an ongoing process, and the good news is that it gets easier with time.

Mistake 7:

Lack of budgeting before your payday: Getting money before you create a spending plan can be dangerous. Note that by the time you create the plan, half the money will be gone on expenses that can not wait for you to decide whether you need a budget or not.

Note that budgeting is a healthy financial habit that you should embrace. Doing it right will make all the difference, and having a success infused mindset is the starting point.

If you are an entrepreneur you know how easy it is to get distracted. Unfortunately, we are so accustomed to falling prey of these distractions and hence end up wasting a lot of our valuable time that we could use to execute important tasks to improve our businesses and lives.

Below are a few tips that will help you manage your time more wisely even if you are not an entrepreneur.

Prioritize Your Tasks Based On Importance.

Establish the one thing that you can accomplish today that will make you feel like you were productive. Complete that task first.

Use “Do Not Disturb” On Your Phone.

If you have apps on your phone through which you connect with friends and family, such as Whatsapp, update your profile as “do not disturb” during your working hours. Also turn off the notifications’ option from all your apps’ settings. This will help you focus on your tasks uninterrupted by the notifications’ sounds that tend to come in often.

This is extremely important as it will help you follow through with whatever you have listed. It is also a good tool that you can use to reward yourself especially if you’ve completed all the tasks on the list. Furthermore, if you are extremely busy or forgetful, the to-do list will keep you in check about what you have to accomplish.

Delete Unimportant Tasks

If you keep rescheduling a task, perhaps it is not as important as you deemed it to be when you scheduled it. So, it shouldn’t be on your to-do list. If it is, do it or delete it.

Assign Deadlines for Your Tasks

This will help you attend to the due tasks before their deadlines approach. You will be more consistent with your work if you actually stick to your deadlines.

No matter who you are, everyone procrastinates in some way. Make a list of important tasks you can work on. Save this list on your phone. Next time you procrastinate, open this list, and start working on one or some of the tasks.

Make a “Waiting for” List

Sometimes we have to wait for certain things to happen before we can take action. For instance; let’s imagine that you need someone to respond in order for you to execute a particular task. Make a waiting list so that you can focus on what you can do now, and what you have to follow up on, so that you don’t forget.

Block out “Me Time”

It’s very important to take time to clear your mind and nourish yourself. Make time for meditation or prayer, going to the gym or taking a walk or whatever else makes you feel at peace with yourself. Note that we are more productive when we feel good.

I’m certain that there are many other time management tools that you can employ to be more productive. But the above tips are a great reference.

Remember to leave comments if you have any, and also visit my website at www.tapthegood.com for all your transformational coaching and counseling needs.

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Love and light

Dr. Jacinta Mpalyenkana, Ph.D., MBA

As the year ends, other than spending a lot of money on gifts and preparing for the holiday celebrations, we get prompted to think about what we’ve achieved during the year, what we’ve lost, what we want to achieve the following year, what to change about ourselves, how to change, financial goals, relationships goals…the list goes on.

Many, (and I plead guilty for doing this for a number of years,) have long given up on the annual-goal setting exercise because they either never follow-through with their goals, or simply, for some reason, fail to achieve their goals. So, for the fear of failing again, they negate or ignore annual resolutions.

However, I have discovered that there is a single question that I have asked myself each year, and have also recommended for my clients, that doesn’t only help to re-establish personal worth, but also leads to new insights about self. Also, this question has somehow led me into evaluating my finance, friendship, business and future related goals.

When you take time to contemplate on, and answer this question, I suggest that you consider thinking about what you are tolerating, let it be partnerships, a job (if you are employed), lifestyle, friendships—to mention but a few. After establishing what you might be tolerating, proceed to analyze what you think you deserve and why. Before you are done, you will have your most important new goals ready for your execution.

If you discover that you are tolerating more than you think, then contact me at www.tapthegood.com/contacts/ for a complimentary personal coaching/counseling session to establish how I can help you take your power back and become the authority of your life.

So, let’s assume that you’ve determined what you want, and why you want it. You have also established that you have all the practical and mental resources you need to execute the required tasks towards achieving your goal. However for some reason, you can’t focus. You are not inspired to take action. And you keep wondering what could be wrong. In this article I share three tips to help you become enthusiastically focused.

Well, you are not abnormal. For the most part, lack of focus is all based on fear: the fear to fail…the fear of being disappointed especially if you’ve embarked on projects in the past that haven’t succeeded. So what do you do? Here we go!

Go back to the drawing board and establish why you want to achieve that goal. What will you emotionally or financially benefit if you achieved your goal? What will your rewards be? Be as specific as possible. Write it down. Read your reasons, and re-write them if that’s what it will take to be clear. Don’t rush. Take your time.

2. Establish what you will lose if you don’t take action. Will you lose freedom, friends or status? You know the answers. Write these answers down. The idea is to be honest with yourself.

3. Determine the first step you will take towards achieving your goal. Make this step simple and easy. The simpler it is, the better it will be for you to embark on it. For instance, if your goal is to write a book, set a goal as simple as writing half a page a day, or writing for 10 minutes. Make the first step fun and easy. Do not overwhelm yourself.

If you follow the above steps, you will get very clear about why you want to achieve that goal, and then get focused to taking action. If you write everything in a “contemplation note-book” (get one if you don’t already), focus, won’t be a problem. The idea is to remove any stress or fear that you’ve attached to your goal.

Last but not least; I once heard this saying: “God will give you food but he won’t cook it for you.” If you want something, you have to do something about it. You have to focus on it. There are no shortcuts. There is no magic. Nothing happens if nothing moves.

If you need more help with getting clear on your goals, or letting go of negative emotions that no longer serve you, I have a resource for you. Check out www.tapthegood.com/contacts/ fill in your details, and I will schedule you for a complimentary 15 minutes’ counseling and/or success coaching session.

In thinking of any form of abundance in any respect do not think in terms of tangible manifestations of it, but rather of the spiritual cause, the idea, the law according to which it becomes manifest. Appearances change, things come and go, but there forever remains the ways and the means for other things to become manifest in your experience. You will always be able to add two and two and get four as an answer. You will always be able to release a rock from your hand and have it fall to the ground. In everything you are, do, and experience you are fundamentally dealing with basic principles and causes. These never become exhausted, never refuse to work, but all too often it is felt that they do when they appear to, the fault lies not in them but in your limited idea as to what they can do for you.

Therefore, regardless of what it is you feel you should have more of, whether it is wealth, success, health, better relations with others, or more sales, they all resolve themselves back to the thought pattern and your internal representations…i.e., beliefs and mind paradigms. A greater experience of anything first requires awareness that the possibility is available to you, and then a desire and willingness to accept it.